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Electronic Pathology Test Requesting with Anglia ICE Proving Successful

Clinicians don't want to spend lots of time filling in forms, nor do they want to wait for days to see hospital test results. Anglia ICE electronic pathology test requesting through SystmOne is saving clinicians time and paper and reducing errors.

Test requesting with Anglia ICE is fully integrated into SystmOne. From the pathology view, you launch the ICE website, record the request, then print out the labels and stick them straight to the samples.

Station View Medical Centre in Bishop Auckland was the first practice to use Anglia ICE with SystmOne. Practice Manager, John Worrall, says, "We were the pilot site for our legacy system when they integrated with Anglia ICE. When we moved to SystmOne, we knew the benefits, didn't want to lose them and so piloted it for TPP. With the legacy system pilot, we'd had various programmers all over us needing to access our practice server. With SystmOne, all of that was sorted centrally - all we had to do was confirm that it worked as we expected it to."

So what are the benefits that John wanted to maintain? "It gives health professionals easier access to patient test results. We are served by one trust using Anglia which covers a group of hospitals - wherever the patients results are within the trust, we can see them." As well as the tests they have requested themselves, GPs can also see results from tests taken at hospitals.

Anglia ICE eliminates the age old illegible doctor's writing problem by making everything electronic. The information that can be automatically populated is carried over directly from the patient record, so clinicians only need to select the tests and print the labels.

"Another benefit is that the Anglia ICE program is semi-intelligent," says John. "The system will ask the GP questions for the selected tests. For example, if they order a B12, it'll ask the GP if they know that the last B12 test was done three months ago and the patient should only have one a year, or if they order a cholesterol test, the system will ask whether it should be a fasting one. This improves our information governance."

Using Anglia ICE from SystmOne is easy. John says, "It's not complicated at all. It's very simple to use and requires minimal training."

Anglia ICE Case Studies...

Dr Richard Gilbert, GP, Mile End Surgery, Castle Partnership, Norwich

"All three surgeries in our practice use electronic pathology test requesting. It gives us the advantage of being able to log on to the database of our patients' results on the hospital computer system.
We log on to Web ICE through SystmOne and generate a barcoded request form. That's logged electronically with the lab. We can look up results that have been requested by a consultant without chasing the consultant's secretary!
Our patients benefit because we can quickly access the information we need to give them. Also, we have access to hospital results which might be relevant to QOF figures, for example patients who have had cholesterol tests, thyroid function tests or brain scans.
I'd recommend Anglia ICE through SystmOne to others. The system doesn't cost us anything, it's easy to use and it saves us a great deal of time."

John Worrall, Practice Manager, Station View Medical Centre, Bishop Auckland

"Using Anglia ICE through SystmOne saves us time, it's more accurate and as it's all on screen, it saves us having bits of paper flying around.
The print-out given to patients presents a much more professional image than the old handwritten one, and patients can actually read it.
The system is very easy to use. You access it from the pathology view in SystmOne and immediately access the host website. The web page is tabular - biochemistry, microbiology etc - and selection of tests is simple. Some  tests have rules applied to them to assist GPs and nurses.
When the form is printed, part of it has four sticky labels which you stick to the sample. The beauty for the lab is that once you've generated a request, the lab will be expecting a sample and if they don't get it, they'll call us."

Dr Richard Willows, GP, Delapre Medical Centre, Northampton

"We got fed up filling in forms with the same information over and over again. Electronic ordering is a lot more efficient.
Requesting is made easier by the alerts and questions that guide you through; the system tells you which tests are appropriate and when to do them.
Anglia ICE makes life a lot easier for the blood-taker - the forms contain accurate legible patient data, and the blood-taker can look in the record to see why the test is being done if the patient has a query. It also helps us with QOF - we order blood tests for patients for the diabetes clinic, and ask patients to book appointments. It improves the patient flow and makes life easier.
The tracking system really helps us - we can track what we've ordered, the lab can track what has arrived, and we can track the returned results and match them to the requests.
Using electronic test requesting saves time, money and frustration, and it's reliable. It's a no-brainer."

Note: Test requesting is also available with Indigo4.